


Cake Mates

by kiarcheo



Category: Six - Marlow/Moss
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/F, Fluff, Minor Catherine of Aragon/Anne Boleyn, Parrward, Pre-Relationship, minor araleyn, no reincarnation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-08
Updated: 2020-12-08
Packaged: 2021-03-10 04:27:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,114
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27958379
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kiarcheo/pseuds/kiarcheo
Summary: “That’s how you know. When two people eat a cake off the floor, that’s it for life.”
Relationships: Katherine Howard/Catherine Parr
Comments: 16
Kudos: 64





	Cake Mates

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by the story of how Alan Alda met his wife I saw on a [Tumblr post](https://kiarcheo.tumblr.com/post/636948950100934656/rainaramsay-i-ndil-cuimhne-ar-daniel)
> 
> It's 1111 words and I just wanted to share it because I think it's neat.

Cathy sees it happening almost in slow-motion. One of the partygoers turning around the kitchen counter in a hurry, bumping into the cake stand without even realising it and going on their merry way. The pedestal wobbling before falling off the counter, the cake splattering on the floor. It's behind the counter and she can't actually see it, but Cathy can't imagine how anything different could happen.

She glances around, eyes looking for the host, but she doesn't see her. Nobody else seems to have noticed what happened. It's a split-second decision. Before she knows what she is doing, Cathy moves towards the kitchen, plate and cutlery still in her hands from her last go at the buffet style food served at the party.

As she turns around the counter...

‘This is not what it looks like?’ A girl is sitting on the floor, looking exactly like a child caught with her hand in the cookie jar. Or in this case, with a spoon loaded with cake halfway to her mouth.

‘Too bad?’ Cathy replies with the same upward inflection that makes her statement sound like question, holding up her own fork.

The girl lets out a laugh. ‘Then it's exactly what it looks like.’

‘How is it?’ It is clearly a rhetorical question as Cathy lowers herself to the floor without waiting to hear the response. 

‘Never had anything Jane made that was not delicious.’ The girl finally brings the spoon to her mouth. 'Please help yourself.' She motions with the now empty spoon to the cake splattered on the floor. 'Probably better if I don't eat it all by myself.'

Cathy doesn’t need to be asked twice. She digs in.

‘How do you know Jane?’ Cathy asks. ‘Oh God, it’s amazing!’

‘She is my cousin.’ The girl chuckles at the appreciative sounds coming from her new friend. ‘I’m Katherine, by the way, since you...was going to say since you’re seeing me at my lowest, but this is not even close to it. Let’s say since we are sharing this lovely moment.’

Cathy blushes slightly as Katherine winks at her. ‘I’m Catherine too. Cathy.’

‘Then you can call me Kat. With a K.’ She eats another spoonful. ‘How do _you_ know Jane?’

‘I used to date her brother.’

‘Sorry.’ Kat gives it a second thought. ‘Wait, which one?’

‘Thomas.’

‘Then I’m really sorry.’

‘Uh?’ Cathy looks at her confused.

‘Sorry that you dated him. He’s an asshole.’ Kat doesn’t hide the grimace as she thinks about him. ‘Must be the name. Never met a good Thomas. Or Henry. Or Francis.’ She scowls at the mere memories of them. ‘Actually. Let’s just say men. I’ll stick with women from now on.’

‘I might take your advice.’ Cathy glances at her furtively. ‘Never had any luck with boys anyway.’

They are just happily chatting as they keep eating the cake when they hear a shutter sound, a chuckle and a ‘What is this?’

‘This is not what it looks like.’ That’s apparently Kat’s go-to opening line.

‘So you’re not eating cake on the floor?’ Jane’s tone is basically daring her cousin to deny the obvious.

‘Yeah, put it on a plate and sit at a table like civil persons.’

‘That's your problem, Anna??’ Jane turns to the other girl, incredulous. ‘That _they_ are sitting on the floor? Not that _the cake_ is on the floor?’

‘To be fair, your floor is probably cleaner than most plates at the refectory.’

Jane stares at her cousin, processing her words. ‘That's not as comforting as you might think.’

‘Oh! Cake!’

Cathy’s heart does not plummet to her stomach as another girl skips in and plops into Kat’s lap unceremoniously. ‘Feed me!’

‘Anne!’ Jane scolds her as Kat wordlessly acquiesces to the demand, already holding a full spoon in front of her face.

‘What?’ Anne mumbles around the spoon. ‘Delicious as always, Janey!’

‘First of all, don’t talk with your mouth full.’ Jane sounds exasperated. ‘Second, don’t call me Janey, you know I hate it.’ From the grin on Anne’s face she does. ‘And third. Why are you acting as if it’s totally normal that Kat is eating food from the floor?!?’

‘We are poor starving students. With no cooking skills. We’re not going to let good food go to waste just because it’s on the floor.’ Kat is nodding from behind her. ‘And your floor is probably cleaner than-’

‘Oh God, you two!’ Jane interrupts her.

‘Two peas in a pod.’ Anna comments, as always amused by their antics.

‘Hell yes!’ Anne raises her hand, palm facing backward, towards Kat, who high-fives her, before eating another spoonful. ‘My turn next!’

‘What part of “I’m going to the kitchen to get a glass of water” meant “I’m going to sit in someone’s lap and eat something from the floor”?’

Kat pops her head out from behind Anne. ‘Hi Lina!’

The new arrival rolls her eyes. ‘Why am I even surprised?’ She mumbles to herself.

‘You know her?’ Cathy, who has been observing in silence until then, asks Kat.

‘Cathy?’ Catalina seems to only then realise there is a third person of the floor. ‘What-’ She shakes her head. ‘You know, I expect it from Anne, we know she has questionable tastes-’

‘Bold words from the girl I’m dating.’

Cathy can’t stop the grin growing on her lips as she looks at Kat trying to suppress her snickers by burying her face into Anne’s back (and maybe – but only maybe – because she is not dating the girl sitting in her lap).

‘Katherine, are you laughing at me?’

From the way Anne can feel her cousin shaking behind her, she’d say yes.

‘No?’ Both Kat and Cathy answer at the same time. They lock eyes and burst out laughing.

Catalina looks at the three girls on the floor. ‘Why do I feel like my life is about to get harder?’  
  
  


Years down the line everyone would claim the credit for the two of them getting together, or at least for being the one who saw it coming first. Anne insists that she deserves it because had she not convinced Kat to go to Jane’s party, she would not have met Cathy. Catalina claims the same, but for Cathy. So Anne always adds that making Cathy jealous (and does Cathy regret ever sharing that detail with her!) helped Cathy realise that she liked her cousin. Anna reminds them that she was the first who saw them, even took a picture of them on the floor because she knew it was the start of something great. And Jane...well, it was her party and her cake...does she need to say more?


End file.
